A high percentage of traffic (e.g., automobile) accidents occur at intersections, and a portion of these accidents result from drivers not being aware of traffic signals. Providing information regarding traffic signals to drivers and making drivers aware of such signals before or at the time a vehicle approaches such signals may help drivers avoid such accidents. In addition, inputting information regarding such signals into systems such as autonomous adaptive cruise control (ACC) may help the performance of such systems.
Information on traffic signals can be provided by automated computer image analysis of images captured from, for example, a camera pointed in the direction of travel. However, such analysis may be inaccurate and take more time than is available in a fast-moving vehicle.